enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, "Where is thy God«?"]
3. There he obtained those supphes of grace and peace which his daily necessities required —
[The wliole hook of Psalms is little else than a record of answers to his prayers. " I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inchned unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings : and he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God^." True, he might enjoy much of this in his own secret chamber; but it was chiefly in the house of God that he obtained these benefits. This he himself acknowledcres : and he assigns it as the reason for his ardent attachment to that holy place : " How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for her- self, where she may lay her young ; even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King, and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : they will be still praising thee .... A day in thy courts is better than a thousand : I had rather be a door- keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord is a sun and a shield : the Lord will give grace and glory : and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly s."]
The example before us might be amply sufficient to commend to our regard the house of God. But I must proceed to state,
IL The incomparably stronger reasons which we have for a similar attachment to it —
The dispensation which we are privileged to enjoy is of a more liberal kind than that under w^hich he lived.
L Our access to God is more intimate —
[David, though a prophet and a king, did not dare to enter into the most holy place, where God displayed his glory. Had he presumed to intrude himself there, he would have been struck dead upon the spot. Not even the high-priest could enter there but on one day in the year, and in the manner prescribed by God himself. But we are permitted to come even to his very throne, and to behold him on his mercy-
e Ps. xU. 1—4, 10. f Ps. xl. 1—3.
g Ps. Ixxxiv. 1—4, 10, 11.